VA Wine Club:
A 30-year legacy, reimagined for the modern wine drinker

Problem

For over 30 years, VA Wine Club has been introducing wine lovers around the U.S. to the hidden gems of Virginia wine. It was founded and is run by people who love wine (and love drinking it), and it is committed to great service, great experiences and, above all, great wines. Thirty years in business also brought baggage: an old design, old systems and very little modernization.

Background

The website was cumbersome to navigate. Information was disjointed and scattered across multiple pages, and the people using it had no clear goal to follow. Behind the site sat a three-club setup built in a choose-your-own-adventure style, which gave members real freedom and gave new visitors a lot of decisions to make before they could join.

Solution

We developed a refined brand identity for the three clubs and produced brand guidelines for the club’s communications and marketing. We also coached the in-house staff and set strategy with them, so they were ready to grow with the new direction. We then migrated VA Wine Club to Commerce7 and built a completely new website to showcase the clubs. Its club onboarding works as a quiz, designed to reduce decision paralysis and improve conversions, and a custom app makes gift cards and club memberships more useful inside Commerce7.

Three VA Wine Club pages: the home page, the club bands for wine, cider and Cellar Reserve, and the Virginia Cider Club
The VA Wine Club About Us page on a phone

A brand built from Virginia

The logo started from three references: Virginia’s landscape, the state’s iconic marketing, and a stemless glass that works as well for cider and beer as it does for wine. A secondary palette color-codes each club, so wine, fine wine and cider each have their own look across the site, the quiz and the merchandise concepts.

VA Wine & Cider Club logo, reversed
Sunset over a forested Virginia river gorge
Three wine bottles on the wine club’s teal
Three cider bottles on the cider club’s gold
A cap concept with the embroidered VA Wine & Cider Club logomark
A VA Wine & Cider Club coaster held in a hand
The VA Wine & Cider Club logomark, a stemless glass
Simula, the VA Wine & Cider Club headline typeface
VA Wine & Cider Club brand color palette
Pieces of the VA Wine Club website and phone screens, from the home page and the club quiz to the clubs, the shop and gift cards

Before and after

The VA Wine Club home page now: Spring forward with the best of Virginia winesThe Virginia Wine of the Month Club home page in June 2020, before the new siteBefore 5forestsAfter 5forests

Project details

Client

Virginia Wine Club

Region